It’s hard to get anything against Houston, but after Tracy McGrady hits a 19-foot jump shot with 3:29 left – his only FGM of the fourth quarter – the Clippers score on their next five possessions, all the while holding Houston to a couple of Yao Ming FTMs. The last of those five possessions results in Corey’s sinking two free throws to put the Clippers up 87-85 with 1:05 remaining.

 Coming out of the timeout, Jeff Van Gundy swaps offense [Luther Head] for defense [Chuck Hayes]. The Clippers do the same – Quinton Ross for Cuttino Mobley. We rarely see Mobley come out in an offense-defense sub, but Dunleavy wants Corey on the floor, likely for his rebounding:

Rafer Alston brings the ball up and shuttles it quickly to McGrady at the top of the arc coming off a screen from Shane Battier. Ross cuts through the screen and doesn’t lose any ground on McGrady. From there, it’s simple. Thomas has strayed from Battier a bit to ready himself for the double-team on McGrady. Once McGrady turns the corner at the left elbow, Thomas commits, stepping inside the lane to challenge McGrady, leaving Battier alone in the left corner. McGrady dishes the ball off to Battier, who has all night. Thomas futilely tries to close, but forget it. 3PM.

 Hayes and Mobley return for their respective squads. The Clips take it out on the side with :53 left. As Hart holds it up top, Elton fakes a high screen, then quickly cuts to set a down screen on Battier for Maggette, who simultaneously cuts along the left arc to collect the ball from Hart. The screen by Elton is perfect, and Corey never stops. He drives down the teeth of the defense. Battier is completely tied up by Elton. Hayes steps onto the right block and sort of forces Corey – maybe the tiniest bit -- to twist awkwardly as he goes up for the layup. The ball hits high off the glass, falls onto the front rim, then slips off. Yao collects the rebound.

 Houston milks the shot clock to :10, with Alston holding the rock up top. Yao sets a screen for McGrady in the left mid-post, but Mobley stays with McGrady as he dives toward the basket. McGrady quickly reverses course, cuts back along the baseline to the left corner, then hangs a left to dash up the sideline with Mobley in pursuit. As McGrady comes around the corner, Alston darts it into him on the left wing from about 14-feeet. It’s a great look, but McGrady misses and Maggette comes down with the rebound.

 Clippers have it with :23 left in regulation down one. No timeout is called. Hart brings the ball up, then dribbles the clock down to :14.5. At that point, Elton comes up and fakes a high screen, then scoots down, only to return for another pick. Hart has made no progress penetrating the defense; there’s no admission below the foul line. Finally, he dishes it off to Tim Thomas on the left arc. Hayes closes very quickly. The shot is no good and the rebound goes to Yao. Maggette quickly fouls Alston, who hits both free throws with :4.1 left to put Houston up by three.

 One last chance for the Clippers, with Hart to inbound. Elton’s solid down screen on McGrady allows Mobley to curl up from the weak side block. With the switch, Yao is now assigned to Cat. When Mobley gets the ball right in front of Hart on the inbounds, he’s one step quicker than Yao, which allows him to elevate for the 3PA. As he does, Alston makes contact. Mobley earns three shots, but the officials give him only two. It’s really not even a close call. The Clippers get jobbed. Some will point out that Mobley misses the first of two, but I’m not someone who believes that counterfactuals like that work. If Cat has three to tie, it might be an entirely different mindset and conclusion. We’re not talking about something so arbitrary as a block-charge call. If you can use instant replay to check something as visually binary as the clock – did the shot beat 0:00 or not? – then you should be able to use it to get a foot-on-the-line call correct.

All three members of Houston’s frontcourt – Battier, Hayes, and Yao – are probably among the 15-20 best defensive players in the league. Not surprisingly, their halfcourt defense is ferocious. You saw it all night, particularly in the latter half of the third quarter, when the Clippers could get absolutely nothing, scoring all of four points in the final 7:40 of the period. On the other end, McGrady torched Mobley for eight points over the final 3 + change in the quarter, running Cat ragged off the ball for three FGMs, then taking him off the dribble to close the quarter with a driving layup. Dunleavy started the fourth with Q on McGrady, which mitigated things somewhat.

Meanwhile, what are we gonna do about Chris Kaman? The man has Steve Sax disease. These moves to the basket? It’s sick. From inside of ten feet, the guy can get a shot virtually anytime he wants. I don’t think people outside of Los Angeles realize how skilled he actually is. But he can’t finish, a condition that’s becoming almost clinical. That’s not a professional diagnosis, mind you, but is there any other way to explain it?

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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BUT, if I made a mistake that bad at my job, I would be asked to turn in my security cards. There can be no question about this. That call decided that the Clippers would lose. There will be no repurcussions for this officiating crew. In fact, given my current extreme doubt in the fairness of the NBA, I believe they will be rewarded for delivering the desired result.

This is the NBA and they employ felons convicted of fraud as officials in charge of fairness. Regardless of the outcome of this season for the Clippers, I am finding myself hard-pressed to believe in the quality of the League when it comes to the notions of fairness of sport. Last year's Finals struck the spark and now it is on fire like a Long Beach apartment building. My entertainment dollars are best spent elsewhere.

Based on that call alone, I consider it less than 10% that I will be renewing either my season tickets or League Pass subscription for next year.

I credit Ric Bucher at ESPN. Given the nature of his employ, he has exposed the issue as well as anyone can in tomorrow's Daily Dime.

A person can miss a charge/block call. That was a disaster.

The less than 10% chance I renew anything? That's the same chance I give to Stern personally apologizing for that call. Add it up.

Officiating has ruined this league, John. I'm not quite ready to buy into conspiracy yet (I have seen a still shot of D.Wade's last drive to the hoop in game 5...Devin Harris is grabbing his arm. It was a good call), but nothing would surprise me.

I'm sure David Stern manipulates the league in other ways, but doing it on the court is hard to keep quiet.

I have resolved many times not to renew for the Clippers, but my wife loves going so she buys them anyway. Who am I to break her heart?

NBA basketball is not a good product any longer, and if not for the Clippers, I doubt I would ever watch.

You are right that Javie didn't cost them the game. Defensive lapses and poor shooting did. But I am still encouraged by this game. They played well for the most part.

I thought they played very well and were in a position to win it. The bad call sealed it for them, unfortunately. Still, they have played hard the last 10 games and even though they haven't won every game they have made me proud to be a Clips fan.

What about momentum...we were driving back..... granted the play before by Thomas was rushed and we could of won. Other than the dam 3rd quarter where we come out flat I feel they played great. Javie should be fined for that stupid call we could of forced OT and a win due to the momentum! F*@k That!

mp: except they called that foul on dirk. They didn't really see a foul; its pure coincidence there was one.

The nba needs to show some guts and address this today.

LoSer: We get it; you're a troll. To be more effective try coming up with something more interesting to say. Like how the clippers lost twice to the grizzlies or how they got swept by the knicks and bobcats. Wait. That was all the work of the lakers.

Although the ending was a heartbreaker, I still think that last night's game was a good one for the Clippers. What people seem to be forgetting is that the quality of play has been excellent over the past half dozen games ... and honestly, if I were Phoenix or Dallas, I'd cringe a little bit if I had to match up against the Clippers in the first round of the playoffs.

The game against Houston was a game of runs, and, unfortunately, the Rockets’ had the last run and the last call. But it was a well played game by the team as a whole (even though Kaman did throw up a stinker last night), and the Clip’s D was as good as the Rockets’ … even the money balls were dropping.

Clipper Nation … let’s keep our chins up. The season ain’t over yet!

PS. L.S. = Lakers Suck. At least the Clippers are 3-0 so far this year against the Grizzlies and not 2-2 like your “team”.

So tired of the Clippers coming out flat in the 3rd. Are they passing a bong around in the locker room at half-time?

mp, I never knew that's why the lights are dimmed at the Laker games but it totally makes sense. I think that's why Kobe's jersey is such a big seller because a lot of his fans soil it and keep buying replacements.

why is it that pretty much every team can find a way to blow us out in the 3rd quarter? To me it's pretty obvious that every other team ahs a coach that can make good adjustments at halftime and get his team fired up, well, every team except the clippers because Dunleavy sucks.

As far as the clippers losing the game because the call, well, as an insider, the clips won a game last week because of a missed call (elton tipped it in).

besides, with a coach like that and with players like chris kaveman, we deserve to lose.

I dont like to make alot of excuses but I always here other teams cry about injuries (esp Lakers), it seems no other team in the league has had to indure the injuries the Clips have faced this year. Sam, Shawn, Zelko, Tim, Maggs.... We have not had a complete roster and we are starting to get the job done working with what we got.

Zelko was 7'0" with the mid range of Cassel. He only played limited minutes but he was consistent and was the best big man free throw shooter in the league. I will never forget how fortunes changed when Sheed threw him down in a hissy fit two seasons back and effed up his wrist. The Clippers knew what they had. I hope to see him play again in a Clipper uni.

One thing I really didn't understand was why it took so long for QRoss to get in the game. As soon as he stepped onto the floor in the 3rd, TMac was done.

I'm sure there is some benefit to having a fresh Q guard a TMac that's been playing all game. BUT, wouldn't it have been better to bring QRoss in during the 3rd to stop TMac from torching us? Why let him sore so many points before bringing our best defender in?

AND, on a night when YAO had 3 fouls early... why would you turn to jumpshots? It seems like something so basic, that I really can't understand why...?

In any case, it was a good and exciting game (- Tim Thomas's last shot).

The good news concerning Big Z is that his contract expires next year, as does Cassell's. That's $10+ million freed up at the same time Corey's contract expires. We'll either be able to keep our genetic freak, or get a couple of nice replacements.

No two ways around it though, it'd be very nice to have him this year. With the shoddy play of Kaman, Z would be a nice backup, and a great compliment to EB in a high-post/low-post situation.

Horrible call last night (and horrible is an understatement, atrocious is a little more on point... I can't recall a bigger screwup by the refs in recent years), but we had a couple of questionable shots towards the end regardless. But we seem to be peaking at the right time. Our boys are playing tough in every single game, and most importantly they look like they're having fun again.

Oh, and Laker fan, can we please spare the "WHERE ARE YOUR TITLES?!?!?!!!11!" comments. Let's focus on the present. Your team is a meglomaniacal superstar, a waste of talent, and ten scrubs. You will collapse and quite possibly miss the playoffs.

I've been gone and have not had access to a computer, so I'm pretty late with this accessment. On 680 AM, the home of the Warriors, they were saying that the call giving Mobley only two shots instead of three was because there was a foul BEFORE the shot. A smart play since since the Clips needed three to tie.

Congratulations Corey, looks like you've finally "earned" more playing time than that legendary player that teams all around the league have been lining up to trade for over the last two years.........the one, the only....

04/11/08 20:24:51

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